

FUTURE SALMON LEGISLATION. 187 



ance upon the Scots part from the slaughter of salmon 

 in forbidden tyme, and of kipper, smolts, and black fishe 

 at all times, would not have made salmond ony mair to 

 abound in these waters gif the lyke order had not bene 

 observed upon the English side." Hence it was that 

 fixed engines, other than cruives and yairs, were of earlier 

 date on the Sol way than elsewhere ; and hence, too, those 

 allusions in Scott's Redgauntlet to the existence of fixed 

 nets in that region about 1750, which have given rise to 

 great misconceptions regarding the date of the engines 

 which are now ordinarily understood when we speak of 

 fixed nets. It was not till 1788, or nearly forty years 

 after the period of which Scott wrote, that anything like 

 the present stake-net was devised, even with the design 

 of operating in the shallow and sheltered waters of the 

 Solway estuary. The nets that had existed in the Solway 

 previous to that date, though of the nature of fixtures, 

 were not similar to nor fitted to do the work of the 

 sea-shore engines which, within these few years, have so 

 greatly injured the general interests of the salmon 

 fisheries, nor indeed were they fitted for any other tidal 

 waters than those of the Solway Firth, which have great 

 peculiarities, such as wideness, shallowness, and disco- 

 loration. The ancient Solway nets were of three kinds. 

 One kind, called " the half-net," was similar to the an- 

 cient stell-net of the Tweed, previously described, the 

 chief difference being that the outer end of the net 

 was held, not by an anchor, but by a man, who stood 

 as deep and as long as he could in the advancing 

 tide, and brought his end of the net ashore as soon 

 as a fish struck. A second kind, called " the poke- 



